Creative+Writing

1. Positive Consequences


 * You would get to live, and be young forever.
 * You would have time to do everything you wanted to do.
 * There would be no rushes to do anything.
 * You wouldn't have to worry about anything.
 * You would enjoy life to the fullest.

Negative Consequences


 * All of the people you care about would die.
 * There would be a population boom and the world would become over populated.
 * There would be a shortage of natural resources.
 * You cannot undo it.
 * It is permanent and you may regret it later on.

2. Setting

Present: Where- The story would take place in a forest, somewhere in Washington state. They would be a few miles from a camp ground and the Fountain of Youth would be in the form of a fresh spring that was sparkling and clear. The day was bright and sunny, and hot, since it was the middle of summer. When: Present day, in mid July. Atmosphere: Teasing, frustrated, comical to a point.

Future: Where- Same woods from the beginning of the story, somewhere in Washington state. The day, instead of sunny, is fairly cloudy and gloomy, although it is July. When- 100 years in the future, to the day, of the day she drank from the fountain of youth. Atmosphere: Regretful, isolated, calm.

3. Main Conflict: Present- Two sisters, Amy and Maggie, are out camping with their father. They go for a hike, and stumble upon the fountain of youth. At first neither of them believe it. Maggie urges Amy to take a sip from it, but Amy doesn't want to. Maggie taunts Amy about being a wimp, and she eventually gets angry and drinks from the fountain of youth to prove her sister wrong. After she drinks, she realizes something is different. Her sister just laughs. She never believed it was the fountain of youth, just that she convinced her sister to drink pond water. They decide to return to the camp site. Future- Amy hasn't aged a day since she drank the water from the Fountain of Youth. 100 years to the day, she finds herself returning to the site where everything took a turn for the worse. She goes to the fountain, and discovers a note under a rock. It is frayed, and limp, and has the directions to undo the forever young curse. It states that all you have to do is take a sip of water, and think about the day when you took the original drink. Amy drinks from the fountain, and imagines the summer day when she and Maggie were there so long ago. She opens her eyes, and everything was back the way it was. Maggie was taunting her, but instead of giving in, she rolls her eyes and says they should go back. After they have left, Amy says she forgot something and goes back. She pulls out a piece of paper from her pocket, writes the directions on it, and sticks it under a rock.

Plot outline:

Introduction- The two characters in the story, Amy, the protagonist, and her older sister Maggie, are hiking through the forest and stumble upon the Fountain of Youth.

Rising Action- Maggie is urging Amy to drink from the fountain, but she doesn't want to. Her past is revealed in that she is cowardly as a result in her mother's death.

Climax- Amy drinks the water and then the story is transfered into the future when it shows her going back to visit the fountain of youth. She is then transfered back in time to when she first drank.

Conclusion- She realizes that she doesn't need to drink water from the fountain to prove a point or please her sister, so she doesn't.

5. Character Development

Over the course of the story, the main character, Amy, changes in quite a few ways. Near the beginning of the story, we can tell by the way she acts that she is independent, fairly outgoing, and caring. She cares about her family, but would rather have things her way than listen to everyone else all the time (i.e her father wanting them to go camping but her rather staying home). She is also shown, by Maggie, to have been more outgoing, courageous, and daring in the past. It has been shown that since her mother died, and maybe even since Christie moved away, she has felt more insecure, frightened, and cautious than before. However, during the climax of the story, Amy realizes than being cowardly all the time has no benefits, and vows to make sure she lives her life, the right way.

6. Irony

One of the major pleats of irony in the story is that Amy, being so cowardly, decides to drink the water. It is situational irony when Amy, right after deciding to stay with her beliefs and not have Maggie make her do something she doesn't want to do, decides to drink the water just to prove something to Maggie. It is dramatic irony, when the audience pretty much knows that it is actually the fountain of youth, but she drinks the water anyway. The audience knows before hand, or at least can predict, that she will become immortal, or suffer some other consequence of the fountain of youth.

7. Symbolism

There are many different symbols in the story. The fact that she went hiking in the forest, becoming semi lost is a symbol for wanting to get away from reality. The trees around them becoming as "constricting as a cage" is a symbol for Amy wanting to break out of the shell she's put herself in, and become her own person again. The Fountain of Youth is a symbol for change mentally, at least to Amy,even though what it offers in cease of change physically. The fountain of youth offers Amy a chance to redeem herself, and change everything about her life from that day on. The fact that she decides to go back to the Fountain of Youth only after she's grown mentally and matured is a symbol for her accepting her fate, and only then is she able to be transferred back in time.

8. Theme

The theme to my short story is that you should never change yourself to please someone else. Amy drank from the fountain of youth even though she didn't want to, just to please Maggie. That ended with her becoming lost and alone, in a world where everyone she cared about was gone, and she would be for all eternity. Only once she accepted that she was able to go back. Once she was back, she decided that she was wrong before to not listen to her own heart, and that's what saved her.